On December 30, 1916, Rasputin was assassinated.
"The streets of St. Petersburg looked festive, passers-by stopped each other and, happily, greeted not only acquaintances, but sometimes strangers as well. All over the city, thanksgiving prayers were being served in churches, in all theaters the audience insisted on the anthem being played and enthusiastically begged for its repetition". This description is not of a celebration of a military victory or the end of a war. With such jubilation did the Russian capital greet the news of the murder, committed the previous night by a group of aristocrats, of the "old man" (as he was called, following the example of the respected monk-mentors) Grigory Rasputin.
When he was first mentioned at the very beginning of the 20th century,
he had a reputation as a saint,
but after a few years he was called nothing but a demon. Ultimately, Grigory Rasputin was attached to the image of a villain in Russian history. Many believed that it was he who destroyed the Romanov dynasty and imperial Russia, summarizes Russian Diary.
A little more than ten years earlier, when the semi-literate Siberian peasant had just appeared in St. Petersburg, no one could have imagined that his word would soon be decisive in making fateful state decisions, and that universal hatred for him would reach such heights.
When Razputin found himself in St. Petersburg, somewhere in 1904-1905, he was already known as a religious man, a wanderer who went on pilgrimages to monasteries and holy places. They said that he had extraordinary abilities and could heal the sick.
In St. Petersburg, many influential church figures showed interest in him, among whom was Archimandrite Theophanes, the clergyman of the royal family. According to one version, it was he who introduced Rasputin to Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and Emperor Nicholas II.
Church historian Georgy Mitrofanov is confident that
"Rasputin was not an adventurer,
but a person who was truly gifted with a special worldview and special spiritual abilities".
After entering the royal court, Rasputin managed to predispose the imperial family to him. He had the greatest influence on Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. This was associated with the illness of the heir Alexei - the only son of Alexandra and Nicholas. He was diagnosed with a terrible disease - hemophilia.
According to numerous testimonies, when in cases of exacerbation of the disease, doctors were powerless to help the child, Rasputin helped. According to the words of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrova, quoted by Warren Yen in her book "The Last Grand Duchess", Rasputin's intervention did have a beneficial effect on the heir. Her words are even more valuable considering that she had a negative attitude towards "the old man".
The closeness to the royal family - Rasputin called the Tsarina "Mother" and the Tsar - "Father" - could not but influence the behavior of the semi-literate Siberian peasant. As historian and literary critic Alexei Varlamov writes in his book "Grigory Rasputin-Novia",
he began to boast about his connections in the Winter Palace,
to be a protégé of all kinds of beggars, whom he received in his large apartment in the center of the capital. Rasputin listened to their requests, tried not to refuse anyone, gave money if they asked for it, called someone from the government if he considered it necessary, without any hesitation. Varlamov cites the following case: Rasputin called the Foreign Ministry and ordered the clerk, who picked up the phone, "to call Alyosha, that minister". The old man was referring to Alexei Khvostov, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1915-1916.
By 1910-1911, Rasputin was living a life far from befitting the preacher image he had presented himself as in St. Petersburg. There were persistent rumors in the capital about his drunkenness, debauchery, and promiscuity, as well as his ability to hypnotize the fairer sex. When he was reproached for this, he justified himself by saying that women themselves sought to be close to him, and argued that only through sin could one know grace. There were rumors that Rasputin was as gifted as a donkey and had a sexual appetite like a boar in heat.
However, the rumors about his relationship with the Tsarina received the greatest resonance.
In Russia, it was rumored that "Grishka" lived with the empress and her daughters. "I have peace in my soul only when you, my teacher, are around me, and I kiss your hands and bow my head on your blessed shoulders", says one of Alexandra Feodorovna's genuine letters to Rasputin, which were printed on a hectograph and circulated in late 1911 in St. Petersburg. In the words of Prime Minister Vladimir Kokovtsov, the letters "gave occasion for the most outrageous gossip", although they were "essentially a manifestation of [the empress's] mystical mood".
The letters were leaked by the deposed monk Iliodor, who was supposedly given them by Rasputin. Iliodor was at first under the influence of the "old man", and then became one of his worst enemies and published a book about him, entitled "The Holy Devil". Soon after the scandal with the letters, one of the deputies in the State Duma made an official inquiry to the authorities about Rasputin and the name of the "old man" was spread by newspapers throughout the country. The prestige of the monarchy was dealt another blow.
The denouement occurred on December 16 (December 29, new style)
in the house of the Tsar's relative Prince Felix Yusupov, who became the organizer of the conspiracy in the name of saving the prestige of the reigning family. As Yusupov recalled, the conspirators, including Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and the monarchist deputy of the State Duma Vladimir Purishkevich, first fed Rasputin poisoned pies, then shot him several times, and then drowned him in a hole in the ice.
Two months after Rasputin's death, the monarchy in Russia was overthrown. The deposed Alexandra and Nikolai Romanovs, together with their children, were first sent to Siberia (on the way they passed the village where Rasputin lived), and then, together with the servants, were shot in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg. After the shooting, 57 icons were found in the possession of the members of the royal family, three of which were gifts from Rasputin.
A little-known fact is that after the February Revolution in Russia, Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky ordered Gen. Kornilov to exhume and burn Rasputin's corpse in the furnaces of the Polytechnic Institute. This was done on the night of March 10-11, 1917.